Vegetable and fruit juice extractors, also known as "juicers", are well-known in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,350,087, issued to Ramirez; U.S. Pat. No. 4,345,517, issued to Arao et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,506,601, issued to Ramirez et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,614,153, issued to Kurome et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,681,031, issued to Austad; U.S. Pat. No. 4,700,621, issued to Elger; U.S. Pat. No. 4,716,823, issued to Capdevila; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,355,784, issued to Franklin et al., disclose a variety of juicers for use in both home and commercial settings.
Typically, such prior art juicers consist of a rotating cutting disk by which fruits and vegetables are a comminuted, i.e., pulverized into a pulp. The rotating cutting disk is normally formed as a portion of a basket or container which, by centrifugal force acting on the juice and pulp, receives and separates the juice and pulp. The juice is drawn out by the centrifugal forces exerted by the rotating disk and basket, with the pulp being either collected in the basket or discharged to some other container.
Various problems have been encountered in the art related to juicing of fruits and/or vegetables, pulp removal, efficient separation of pulp and juice at high rates, as well as other problems regarding efficiency of juice extraction. In particular, many prior art juicers have suffered from inefficient, underpowered motor systems. In some juicers, the simultaneous introduction of large quantities of fruits and/or vegetables into the rotating blade and basket assembly causes the blade to slow, or even to stop, as a result of the frictional forces created by the interaction of the fruits and/or vegetables and the rotating cutting disk. This overloading of the cutting disk and motor causes an inconvenience for the operator, and in some cases may lead to permanent damage to the juicer. Motors have been "burned-out" due to the operator insisting upon forcing large quantities of fruits and/or vegetables into the cutting disk and thus stopping the motor while it is still powered. Such stoppage also greatly reduces the efficiency of the juicing operation. This is particularly important in a commercial setting, where fast and efficient juicing is required to satisfy customer demand.
There has also been a long felt need for an efficient means of disposing of the pulp. In the art, juicers are known which eject the pulp from the rotating blade and basket assembly into an adjacent container. This adjacent container is normally the same size as the juicer, i.e., a size suitable for counter top use. As a result, these prior art containers fill rapidly, requiring frequent unloading into a trash receptacle. Each time the pulp container is filled, the juicing operation must stop while the pulp container is removed, cleaned-out, and returned to the juicer. This creates an unacceptable delay in the process, especially in commercial operations.
A further significant problem associated with prior art juicers is the over "oxygenation" of the juice, due to agitation of the juice during and after extraction from the pulp. The over oxygenation of the juice tends to reduce its vitamin and enzyme content (due to oxidation), significantly reducing its nutritional benefits.
As a consequence, there has been a long felt need for a juicer having a motor which will not stop when large quantities of fruits and/or vegetables are forced into contact with the cutting blades of the juicer. Another need is for an easy and efficient way of disposing of large quantities of pulp without having to cease operation of the juicer in order to empty a pulp container. In addition, there has been a long felt need for a juicer which minimizes the oxygenation of the juice during and after juice extraction.